MY HAUNTED HOUSE

My plan is to build a haunted house of my very own. On the left you can see my haunted house from Halloween 2003. On the right is the clay walls for my mini haunted house. The white thing there on is an old tile I use to bake my clay.

The clay is baked to form my walls. They don`t look so great but there just there to give form and support the detailing later.  I have a three family house so I used 2" per floor to set up my height. But everything changes as I go along so I don`t really want something that perfect to scale.  I them make a base to build my house on. The base is about a 1/4" thick with the center open so I can work on it easyier and to install lights later. I use clay to hold the walls up and more clay to attach the walls to each other.

Here I have all the walls connected and baked. In the picture on the left you can see a small bump on the top of the wall in front of the picture. It happens maybe if I let the clay cool in the oven or put another tile on top of it I wouldn`t have it. But I think it added to the haunted old house look.

I put to much pressure on the wall in the picture on the left and it broke into a nice puzzle which I use clay to put back together. On the right you can see how I used clay on the inside to join the walls.

I also used some clay to smooth out the outside corners. On the right is a nice view of my puzzle wall. You can also see the base is kinder smooth at this point. Later I`ll get an idea of what I`m doing with the base so I`ll leave it plan for how.

More pictures to give you an idea how I put it together.

I`m adding a porch to the front of the house that will wrap around the left side of the house. I cut out paper templates of the base for the porch that came out from the house about two inches. I made some sides for the porch base by making 1/4 wide strips out of clay. Once I baked them I cut them to size. You can see two of them in the above picture. I used some gray clay to support them to the base. Notice the line of grey clay in the front. Thats were the front of the porch will be connected.

I added the front support for the porch. I used grey clay tohold it up and uncolored clay to connect the porch supports to each other. In the picture on the right I added supports that will be under the porch. The floor for the porch is in two pieces so I supported were the pieces meet.

Here I added the two floor pieces (left) and before I baked I made three small holes  from the area under the porch floor to the inside walls. These holes will vent out these areas and prevent the porch from opening up. I haven`t had this happen yet but why leave it to chance.

I added a bunch of old creaky floor board to the porch and if you look close you can see nail holes. I left out the floor boards in front of the three window in the front because my house has a kick out there. Also I draw on the clay with a pencil to get an Idea whats going were. I haven`t had a problem with doing this yet.

Heres a side view of the porch ( left) and heres my front door , window and columns. I will install the windows & door before baking. The columns are bake already and will be installed later.

I started making the kick out on the front of the house by cutting paper templetes and taping them together. Once I was happy with the sizes I cut & baked the pieces of clay. The picture on the right show them being installed.

I goofed with the size and had to add another window. I also added green siding. The picture on the right is what I`m going for. The columns will have a square base with a round column on top. The step in the front will be filled in later. And I have to make the baluster for the porch.

Here you can see I added the porch for the second floor. I made paper templets of the porch. Then I used the templets to make clay piece that I baked. Once they cooled from the oven I installed them on top of the columns using some clay to hold them in place.

I baked it to get the porch lock in place (on the left). On the right you can see I added floor boards to the second floor porch and I also added siding and windows. You can also see I use a pencil to mark window & door placement.

In the picture on the left you can the start of the lower roof pieces. And on the right I installed the lower roof and baked it.

More pictures of the lower roof baked in place.

Sorry I didn't take picture of the rest of the roof going on but I'm ready for some roofing now.

A shot of the roof from the side and some pieces I'm going to use to build out the other side of the house.

This is the build out to the side of the house. I added the piece right over the siding. I think this gives the house a bigger look.

On the left is the build out on the side and you can see I haven't added siding to the back of the house. On the right is the roof  before baking.

Here is a view of the side of the roof with the dog house installed. You can see I haven't added the detail to the dog house roof on the left and its done on the right.

Again these pictures are before the clay has been baked so the whole roof job was done in one shot.

A look at the front and the other dog house roof.

This is the roof after it was baked.

I cut out all the windows using a dremel tool. I want to use leds on the inside and also to add creature to the windows later. I went for a warped look to the roof which really has a haunted look to it.

Once I cut the windows out in the front the house looked a lot better. I still have a lot of work to do  just getting the house build then I have to haunt it. After all it is my haunted house.

I made and installed the fence for the bottom porch. The right is the front view and the left is the side view. The fence is made of clay with a piece of wire in it to give it a little support.

On the right you can see I added a chimney and a vent pipe that I will paint later after all the baking is done. On the left I added the fence for the second floor porch. Which is made out of metal on my house and made out of wire thats solder here .

As you can see the metal fence wraps around the 2nd fl. porch. I will be gluing it in place later after I finish with the clay. But now I painted it flat black as you can see in the picture on the left. Making the fences for both porches took a great deal of time but after there painted and installed I'm sure it will look great.

I added some wooden planks to the back & side windows

I added a TV antenna that I'm going to have a owl on. On the right is my witch and her caldron. She going on the first floor porch.

A side and back view of the witch.

Above is the block of wood I use to bake small pieces on. I drilled small holes in the wood so I could stand thing up on wire.

You can see the how small these guys are. On the right is the owl that sits on the antenna on the roof.

I'm making little skeleton for the out side of the house. You can see these guys are small so I have to make them one part at a time. The first part is the head on the wire. Then I make a wire frame for the arms & legs.

The skeleton in my hand just got some ribs and a back bone. On the right are a few  sketetons and the witch before they get baked. Once the clay is baked I'll make the arms and legs. If you look close there a skeleton laying down behind the skeletons in the front. This one will be a skull & rib cage that will be chained to the wall.

I added a little front yard and a big tree. I made it like a puzzle piece so it will fit together nice when it done. The tree is made of wire with thinner wire wraped around it to keep the clay in place as I shape it.

Here is the tree with clay over the wire frame. I added the grim reaper.

Here is the tree with clay over the wire frame. I added the grim reaper.

I added a mini grave yard to the front yard. You can see the arms on the sketelon are in the air. When I do the arms there be in the ground adding support to the body. I used different color clay on the ground for now but once it get some paint it will all look alike. Also the tombstones are going to be painted. The grim reaper is glued in place with some liquid sculpey.

In the picture on top of the left side you can see how I used the skeletons arms to add support to the body .The lower left has the Owl in place. The right picture is were I'm at so far. Little by little its starting to come together. Next I have to start haunting the house a little more.

I added another piece to my puzzle for a witch or two.Also I plan on adding some skulls to the three spikes on wall in front of the witch. Once I paint the ground it should look like one piece.

I started to add some pumpkins & skulls to the porch. The rib cage hanging overthe second floor porch. Once I start painting every thing it should start looking cool.

Somemore skulls and the old tree by the witch.

This skull will have two horn when its done and the picture on the right is a ghost floating by the second floor window.

The picture above is all three piece cmpleted and ready for painting. On the right is the back view with a snake coming out of the top window and a skeletons hand trying to get out from the window on the first floor left.

A few Skeletons partying up on the roof & the snake in the window. Also the skull on the peak got some horns

A close up of the skeleton hand and the snake in the window.

I started painting and you should start to see more details

You can see things like the ghost and the tombstone starting to stand out more.

The siding and the skeleton hand changed alot with a little paint

The snake again and the ghost. Also the skulls on the corners of the porch.

Some pumpkins hanging on the first floor porch and the partying skeletons on the roof.

On the left you see the witch piece. If you look between the tree and the wall with the skull you will see my little wolf. And on the right is the grave yard with some skeletons breaking thru the ground. The brown I used for the dirt will get some more color later.

A close up of the ground breakers and the hanging guy with no arms.

I tried to get a better pic of the wolf but its not coming out. The reaper from my first halloween. The full size one was seven feet tall.

Again this guy is so small it's hard o get a good picture. The horns have some detail on them in person.

Here is a front & back view of the finished Haunted House.

The finished side views

This is the last picture to this project. A view from above. All the pieces fit together nice. I should have added something on the ground on the house base. But I'm finished with it for now. The only other thing to do is add some lights. I think I'm going to use leds to reduce heat and use different colors. Thanks for checking out my haunt house project. Next I'm going to finish my castle of darkness.

BACK